Justice Dogar’s Daughter Already Admitted to Medical College

Adil Najam

In writing about the controversy of Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar’s daughter’s F.Sc. marks being jacked up I had mused that “neither 640 nor 661 marks in F.Sc. gets you into a medical college, at least not on merit.” It seems that I was wrong. It does. And in the case of Farah Hameed Dogar, daughter of Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar, it did!

Not on merit, of course. But who cares for merit when judges have a “special quota.” Someone, please tell me why judges need a quota on medical college seats!

Here is the update from today’s The News, again by Ansar Abassi:

Farah Hameed Dogar, the daughter of the chief justice of Pakistan, whose FSc marks were jacked up, thereby, sparking a controversy, has already been admitted to a medical college against a special quota reserved for judges, although, the same college had refused to entertain her application before her marks were revised by the FBISE.

The earlier refusal of the Islamic Medical College, Rawalpindi, had primarily come because Farah Dogar was in Grade-C with only 641 marks. But only a week after her first attempt, she submitted a fresh application along with a new marks sheet to the college, which accepted her application only because the new result showed her in Grade-B with 661 marks.

Farah Dogar’s case file also shows that after the validly-allowed re-checking of her answer sheets and improvement of her original marks from 640 to the previous 641, her file in the FBISE did not move for 20 days. It was during these days when the chief justice’s daughter first applied for the entry test in the Islamic Medical College.

However, the file suddenly found wings on Sept 10, 2008 when the then chairman FBISE Commodore (retd) Shamshad, in violation of the board rules, ordered: “Pl have the answer books of this candidate re-assessed.”

This order of the chairman came only five days prior to the last date — i.e. Sept 15, which was fixed by the administration of the Islamic Medical College for the submission of applications for the entry test.

Since the deadline was approaching fast, the controller of examination referred the case to his deputy controller examination on Sept 11. This deputy controller on the same day wrote on the file: “Special arrangements may please be made, as directed by the chairman, today” and referred it back to his controller of examinations.

The very next day, on Sept 12, the controller of examinations noted: “Pl call the examiner concerned. Proceed as directed by the CM (chairman)” and sent it back to the deputy controller, examinations, who wrote on the file: “Immediate pl.”

On Sept 13, all the examiners concerned were made to attend the controller, examination (Sec) office to reassess her answer sheets. Normally, the answer sheets where the re-checking is required are sent to examiners in sealed envelopes but in this case, the “head examiners” were made to attend the office of the controller of examinations.

After the controversial re-assessment, which resulted in an increase in her marks from 640 to 661, an assistant controller of examinations referred the case to the deputy controller of examinations on Sept 15. The same day the file was moved to the chairman, who granted his approval to the new marks.

The controller of examinations directed the office concerned to prepare the revised marks sheet the same day. The file showed that it was not only prepared the same day but was also handed over to the chairman through the controller of examinations personally. And the same day, the candidate’s application along with the new marks sheet reached the Islamic Medical College’s admission section, where it was accepted for the entry test.

The candidate took the entry test on Sept 21 along with other candidates. She passed the entry test but could not qualify to get admission on open merit. She was, however, given admission against a quota, which is allocated by the college for sons and daughters of judges under an agreement reached between the university and the Al-Meezan Foundation several years ago.

The Al-Meezan Foundation was created in the old building of the Supreme Court of Pakistan at Peshawar Road, Rawalpindi, for the welfare of judges, both serving and retired. The college management confirmed to The News that one candidate recommended by the foundation was offered admission, provided the candidate had more than 660 marks (first division at least) in FSc and that he/she also passed the entry test.

Meanwhile, a source said for the one-seat quota of judges, some other candidates were also in the run to get admission but luck smiled on the chief justice’s daughter. The source asked this correspondent to dig into the matter as to what had happened in the Al-Meezan Foundation and who from amongst the scions of judges higher in merit for the single seat did not get it because of the chief justice’s daughter.

Major (retd) Munir Azam, who until recently was associated with the college administration, confirmed to this correspondent that Farah Dogar had initially applied for the entry test but her application was rejected and returned because she did not have the minimum 60 per cent marks.

It was also learnt that the former chairman of the FBISE, Commodore (retd) Shamshad, who enjoyed six years of term as the head of the federal board, is being tipped as chairman of the under formation National Education Regulatory Authority (NERA). However, due to this controversy, the retired commodore is expected to lose the post-retirement government job.

By way of update to yesterday’s story, the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) has now issued a curt rejoinder and The News has responded to it:

The Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education on Tuesday clarified that the marks of Farah Hameed Dogar, the daughter of the chief justice of Pakistan, were revised along with 200 other candidates.

In a brief press release issued by the controller of examinations after the case exploded in the media, the board said: “The application of rechecking of result is covered by the rules of the board. After declaration of the HSSC Part-II annual examination 2008 result, 1,093 candidates applied for rechecking of their papers. Resultantly, there was no discrepancy in cases of 892 candidates and whereas certain discrepancies were found in the cases of 201 candidates. The case of Miss Farah Hameed Dogar, d/o Abdul Hameed Dogar, was also one of the 201 cases where the results were revised, and revised marks sheets were issued to all students.”

Ansar Abbasi adds: The board has again tried to mislead the people as it is correct that in 201 cases results were revised but out of 201 cases, only in one case the examination papers were re-marked and the numbers increased. In the other 200 cases, only errors in adding the total marks were corrected.

The board officials have re-confirmed to me that there was only one case of re-assessment (re-marking) of papers while the other 200 were of recounting and correcting the totals. The board should come clean and state the facts instead of misleading the people. The News stands by its story.

However, thsi story is causing more stir than Justice Dogar might have wanted. Although Education Minister Bijarani (who has his own controversies to worry about) remains silent, the Minister of State for Education Ghulam Farid Kathia seems to have reacted. But a rather interesting reaction it is:

Minister of State for Education Ghulam Farid Kathia conceded on Tuesday that an illegality had been committed in the case of the chief justice’s daughter but said no allegation could be levelled against any person at this stage.

Kathia told The News that an inquiry into the issue will be conducted and those found guilty of misuse of power will be punished. To a question, he said no influence, even from the office of the chief justice, could affect the findings of the inquiry or action against the involved persons in this irregularity.

The minister, however, did not give a time period during which his ministry would be in a position to reverse the wrong step.

And that is where things stand right now. Seems like we will be hearing plenty more about this yet.